Women’s swim finishes 4th at MAC tourney

The women’s swimming team of Eastern Michigan University took home a fourth place finish in the Mid-American Conference Championship meet after three days of competition at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, Saturday.

The Eagles earned 469 points, while the University of Akron led from start to finish and took the MAC championship for the first time in the history of the Zips’ swimming program.

Miami University and Bowling Green State University were the other schools that finished ahead of EMU in the final standings.

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“The conference has a lot of parity,” EMU coach Peter Linn said. “If you look at the five teams in the standings, there is not much separating them.”

The women’s squad ended the first day of competition, Thursday, in third, with 148 points. Akron and Miami-Ohio finished 1-2, respectively, above the Eagles.

The EMU women’s swimming squad ended the campaign with an 8-4 overall record and 4-2 in the MAC.

Senior diver Danielle Hulvey defended her MAC one-meter diving title with a final score of 309.65, ahead of Nikki Craft of Miami (302.45) and Ohio University’s Kristin Capcik (300.15).

Grace Van Allen placed seventh in the 500-freestyle final with a time of 4:55.86. Jessie Godlewski finished sixth in the 200-Individual Medley final, while Brittney Kuras of Buffalo retained her title in the event with a time of 1:59.20, which was only .03 seconds slower than the meet and MAC record she set last year.

Mary Kate Maclean placed eighth in the 50-freestyle while Hannah Raspopovich of Akron won the event with a time of 22.76, which tied a pool record.

The Eagles dropped to fifth in the standings after the second day of the meet, Friday. Monica Dorszewski was the top finisher for the Eagles with a third place in the 100-breaststroke with a time of 1:02.22, which got her a consideration spot in the NCAA Championship for the 100-breast.

Godlewski got a fifth place finish in the 400-IM, while Jackie Swartz got sixth in the 100-butterfly.
Addy Ferguson of Ohio University set a championship meet record in the 100-backstroke, touching the wall at 53.10.

On the third and final day of competition, Dorszewski placed fourth in the 200-breaststroke with a time of 2:15.48, which gave her consideration for the NCAA Championship in that event.

Godlewski won the title in the 200-butterfly, an event she still holds the meet and MAC records in, touching the wall at 1:58.37. The time also gave Godlewski a new high mark in the pool.

Lauren Dark was the highest finishing diver in the three-meter dive with a third place finish, with a score of 337.35. Dark finished above Hulvey (330.95) while Morgan Srail of Ohio (339.05) won the championship in the event.

Other records fell on the last day of the meet. Brigett Ruehl of Ball State University won the 200-breaststroke after touching the wall at 2:11.89, which set a pool high mark.

The Buffalo 400-freestyle relay team of Spencer Rodriguez, Taylor Steffl, Marissa Murphy and Brittney Kuras set a MAC record in the event at a time of 3:19.37. Kuras also set MAC, meet and pool records after she claimed first in the 100-freestyle at a time of 48.50, which was a record Eastern Michigan’s Madeleine Pilchard held since 2008.

The Eagles had three swimmers claim All-MAC honors. Hulvey and Godlewski got first-team honors while Monica Dorszewski took a second team nomination. Hulvey came home with the most outstanding diver award for the 2013-14 season.

“[Hulvey] has been the class of the field,” Linn said. “She has had a wonderful career here.”